George Turner

In the Meadows at Barrow-on-TrentBritish, (1843-1910)Oil on canvas, signed & dated (18)’89, also signed, inscribed & dated verso

George Turner was a landscape painter born in Cromford, Derbyshire in 1843. A natural talent, he turned his hand to private art teaching as a young man. After moving to Barrow-on-Trent he met and married his first wife Eliza Lakin in 1865. They lived at her family farm ‘The Walnuts’ and had four children, two of whom became artists, Mary Turner (later Woore) and the better known William Lakin Turner (1867-1936). Turner specialised in rustic views of South Derbyshire, the Trent Valley, Birmingham, North Wales and Scotland. He exhibited from 1860 at the Birmingham Society of Artists and Suffolk Street. He was also a frequent exhibitor at the Derby Art Gallery. Turner was a member of the Derby Corporation Art Gallery Committee and was art master to Louis Bosworth Hurt (1856-1929) who also lived near Barrow-on-Trent, and David Payne (fl. 1876-1891), as well as his son William. In 1880, he was commissioned to paint views of Calk Abbey by Lady Crewe. After the death of his wife in 1900, he moved to Kirk Ireton, living for a time at the Barley Mow Inn. He married for a second time to the artist Kate Stevens Smith (1871-1964), moving to Cliffe Ash Cottage in Idridgehay. Turner died at Idridgehay on 29 March, 1910 and is buried in St James’ churchyard. Turner has been dubbed ‘Derbyshire’s John Constable with his works being highly collectable. Examples of his paintings can be found at the Derby Art Gallery.

The work is housed in a new, English made frame which is in excellent condition.